952 


aiOOLOFLIFE 

MNRY  VAN  DYKE 


IC-NRLF 


ISfl    MM1 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  LIFE 


THE 

SCHOOL   OF  LIFE 

BY 
Henry  van  Dyke 


NEW  YORK 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 

1905 


Copyright,  1905,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
Published  March,  1905 


- 


D.  B.  Updike,  The  Merrymount  Press,  Boston 


<b 

THE 

vw 

SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

MANY  fine  things  have  been  said 
in  Commencement  Addresses  about 
"  Culture  and  Progress,"  "  The  Higher 
Learning,"  "American  Scholarship," 
"The  University  Spirit,"  "The  Wo 
man's  College,"  and  other  subjects 
bearing  on  the  relation  of  education 
to  life.  But  the  most  important  thing, 
which  needs  not  only  to  be  said,  but 
also  to  be  understood,  is  that  life  itself 
is  the  great  school. 

This  whole  framework  of  things  vis 
ible  and  invisible  wherein  we  myste 
riously  find  ourselves  perceiving,  rea 
soning,  reflecting,  desiring,  choosing 
and  acting,  is  designed  and  fitted,  so 
far  at  least  as  it  concerns  us  and  re- 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

veals  itself  to  us,  to  be  a  place  of  train 
ing  and  enlightenment  for  the  human 
race  through  the  unfolding  and  devel 
opment  of  human  persons  such  as  you 
and  me.  For  no  other  purpose  are  these 
wondrous  potencies  of  perception  and 
emotion,  thought  and  will,  housed 
within  walls  of  flesh  and  shut  in  by 
doors  of  sense,  but  that  we  may  learn 
to  set  them  free  and  lead  them  out.  For 
no  other  purpose  are  we  beset  with  at 
tractions  and  repulsions,  obstacles  and 
allurements,  helps  and  hardships,tasks, 
duties,  pleasures,  persons,  books,  ma 
chines,  plants,  animals,  houses,  forests, 
storm  and  sunshine,  water  fresh  and 
salt,  fire  wild  and  tame,  a  various  earth, 
a  mutable  heaven,  and  an  intricate  hu 
manity,  but  that  we  may  be  instructed 
in  the  nature  of  things  and  people, 
and  rise  by  knowledge  and  sympathy, 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

through  gradual  and  secret  promotions, 
into  a  fuller  and  finer  life. 

Facts  are  teachers.  Experiences  are 
lessons.  Friends  are  guides.  Work  is  a 
master.  Love  is  an  interpreter.  Teach 
ing  itself  is  a  method  of  learning.  Joy 
carries  a  divining  rod  and  discovers 
fountains.  Sorrow  is  an  astronomer 
and  shows  us  the  stars.  What  I  have 
lived  I  really  know,  and  what  I  really 
know  I  partly  own ;  and  so  begirt  with 
what  I  know  and  what  I  own,  I  move 
through  my  curriculum,  elective  and 
required,  gaining  nothing  but  what  I 
learn,  at  once  instructed  and  examined 
by  every  duty  and  every  pleasure. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  say,  "To-day  educa 
tion  ends,  to-morrow  life  begins."  The 
process  is  continuous :  the  idea  into  the 
thought,  the  thought  into  the  action, 
the  action  into  the  character.  When 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

the  mulberry  seed  falls  into  the  ground 
and  germinates,  it  begins  to  be  trans 
formed  into  silk. 

This  view  of  life  as  a  process  of  edu 
cation  was  held  by  the  Greeks  and  the 
Hebrews, — the  two  races  in  whose 
deep  hearts  the  stream  of  modern  pro 
gress  takes  its  rise,  the  two  great  races 
whose  energy  of  spirit  and  strength  of 
self-restraint  have  kept  the  world  from 
sinking  into  the  dream-lit  torpor  of  the 
mystic  East,  or  whirling  into  the  blind, 
restless  activity  of  the  barbarian  West. 

What  is  it  but  the  idea  of  the  school 
of  life  that  sings  through  the  words  of 
the  Hebrew  psalmist  ?  "  I  will  instruct 
thee  and  teach  thee  in  the  way  which 
thou  shalt  go.  I  will  guide  thee  with 
mine  eye.  Be  ye  not  as  the  horse  or  as 
the  mule,  whose  mouth  must  be  held 
in  with  bit  and  bridle  lest  they  come 

[4] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

near  unto  thee."  This  warning  against 
the  mulish  attitude  which  turns  life  in 
to  a  process  of  punishment,  this  praise 
of  the  eye-method  which  is  the  tri 
umph  of  teaching,  —  these  are  the 
notes  of  a  wonderful  and  world-wide 
school. 

It  is  the  same  view  of  life  that  shines 
through  Plato's  noble  words:  "This 
then  must  be  our  notion  of  the  just  man, 
that  even  when  he  is  in  poverty  or  sick 
ness,  or  any  other  seeming  misfortune, 
all  things  will  in  the  end  work  together 
for  good  to  him  in  life  and  death ;  for 
the  gods  have  a  care  of  any  one  whose 
desire  is  to  become  just,  and  to  be  like 
God,  as  far  as  man  can  attain  His  like 
ness  by  the  pursuit  of  virtue." 

Not  always,  indeed,  did  the  Greek  use 
so  strong  an  ethical  emphasis.  For  him 
the  dominant  idea  was  the  unfolding 

[   H 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

of  reason,  the  clarifying  of  the  powers 
of  thought  and  imagination.  His  ideal 
man  was  one  who  saw  things  as  they 
are,  and  understood  their  nature,  and 
felt  beauty,  and  followed  truth. 

It  was  the  Hebrew  who  laid  the 
heaviest  stress  upon  the  conception  of 
righteousness.  The  foundations  of  his 
school  were  the  tablets  on  which  the 
divine  laws,  "Thou  shalt"  and  "Thou 
shalt  not,"  were  inscribed.  The  ideal  of 
his  education  was  the  power  to  distin 
guish  between  good  and  evil,  and  the 
will  to  choose  the  good,  and  the  strength 
to  stand  by  it.  Life,  to  his  apprehen 
sion,  fulfilled  its  purpose  in  the  devel 
opment  of  a  man  who  walked  uprightly 
and  kept  the  commandments. 

Thus  these  two  master-races  of  an 
tiquity,  alike  in  their  apprehension  of 
existence  from  the  standpoint  of  the 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

soul,  worked  out  their  thought  of  vital 
education,  along  the  lines  of  different 
temperaments,  to  noble  results.  ^Es- 
chylus  and  Ezekiel  lived  in  the  same 
century. 

Reason  and  Righteousness:  what 
more  can  the  process  of  life  do  to  jus 
tify  itself,  than  to  unfold  these  two 
splendid  flowers  on  the  tree  of  our  hu 
manity?  What  third  idea  is  there  that 
the  third  great  race,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
may  conceive,  and  cherish,  and  bring 
to  blossom  and  fruition? 

There  is  only  one, — the  idea  of  Ser 
vice.  Too  much  the  sweet  reasonable 
ness  of  the  Greek  ideal  tended  to  fos 
ter  an  intellectual  isolation ;  too  much 
the  strenuous  righteousness  of  the  He 
brew  ideal  gave  shelter  to  the  microbe 
of  Pharisaism.  It  was  left  for  the  An 
glo-Saxon  race,  quickened  by  the  new 
[7  ] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

word  and  the  new  life  of  a  Divine 
Teacher,  to  claim  for  the  seed  an  equal 
glory  with  the  flower  and  the  fruit ;  to 
perceive  that  righteousness  is  not  rea 
sonable,  and  reason  is  not  righteous, 
unless  they  are  both  communicable  and 
serviceable ;  to  say  that  the  highest  re 
sult  of  our  human  experience  is  to 
bring  forth  better  men  and  women, 
able  and  willing  to  give  of  that  which 
makes  them  better  to  the  world  in 
which  they  live.  This  is  the  ultimate 
word  concerning  the  school  of  life.  I 
catch  its  inspiring  note  in  the  question 
of  that  very  noble  gentleman  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  who  said,  "To  what  purpose 
should  our  thoughts  be  directed  to  va 
rious  kinds  of  knowledge,  unless  room 
be  afforded  for  putting  it  into  practice, 
so  that  public  advantage  may  be  the 
result  ? "  These  then  are  what  the  edu- 

[8] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

cation  of  life  is  to  bring  out, — Reason, 
Righteousness,  and  Service. 

But  if  life  itself  be  the  school,  what 
becomes  of  our  colleges  and  universi 
ties?  They  are,  or  they  ought  to  be, 
simply  preparatory  institutions  to  fit  us 
to  go  on  with  our  education.  Not  what 
do  they  teach,  but  how  do  they  prepare 
us  to  learn — that  is  the  question.  I 
measure  a  college  not  by  the  height  of 
its  towers,  nor  by  the  length  of  its  ex 
amination  papers,  nor  by  the  pride  of 
its  professors,  but  chiefly  by  the  docil 
ity  of  its  graduates.  I  do  not  ask,  Where 
did  you  leave  off?  but,  Are  you  ready 
to  go  on  ?  Graduation  is  not  a  stepping 
out;  it  is  either  a  stepping  up, — gradu 
ad  gradum, — a  promotion  to  a  higher 
class,  or  a  dropping  to  a  lower  one.  The 
cause  for  which  a  student  is  dropped 
may  be  invincible  ignorance,  incurable 
[9] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

frivolity,  or  obstructive  and  constric- 
tive  learning. 

"One  of  the  benefits  of  a  college  edu 
cation,"  says  Emerson,  "is  to  show  a 
boy  its  little  avail."  Hamilton  and  Jef 
ferson  and  Madison  and  Adams  and 
Webster  were  college  men.  But  Frank 
lin,  Washington,  Marshall,  Clay  and 
Lincoln  were  not. 

A  college  education  is  good  for  those 
who  can  digest  it.  The  academic  atmo 
sphere  has  its  dangers,  of  which  the 
greatest  are  a  certain  illusion  of  infal 
libility,  a  certain  fever  of  intellectual 
jealousy,  and  a  certain  dry  idolatry  of 
schedules  and  programmes.  But  these 
infirmities  hardly  touch  the  mass  of 
students,  busy  as  they  are  nowadays 
with  their  athletics,  their  societies,  their 
youthful  pleasures.  The  few  who  are 
affected  more  seriously  are  usually 

[10] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

cured  by  contact  with  the  larger  world. 
Most  of  the  chronic  cases  occur  among 
those  who  really  never  leave  the  pre 
paratory  institution,  but  pass  from  the 
class  to  the  instructor's  seat,  and  from 
that  to  the  professorial  chair,  and  so 
along  the  spiral,  bounded  ever  by  the 
same  curve  and  steadily  narrowing  in 
ward. 

Specialists  we  must  have ;  and  to-day 
we  are  told  that  a  successful  specialist 
must  give  his  whole  life  to  the  study 
of  the  viscosity  of  electricity,  or  the 
value  of  the  participial  infinitive,  or 
some  such  pin-point  of  concentration. 
For  this  a  secluded  and  cloistered  life 
may  be  necessary.  But  let  us  have  room 
also  in  our  colleges  for  teachers  who 
have  been  out  in  the  world,  and  touched 
life  on  different  sides,  and  taken  part 
in  various  labours,  and  been  buffeted, 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

and  learned  how  other  men  live,  and 
what  troubles  them,  and  what  they 
need.  Great  is  the  specialist,  and  pre 
cious;  but  I  think  we  still  have  a  use 
for  masters  of  the  old  type,  who  knew 
many  things,  and  were  broadened  by 
experience,  and  had  the  power  of  vital 
inspiration, and  could  start  their  pupils 
on  and  up  through  the  struggles  and 
triumphs  of  a  lifelong  education. 

There  is  much  discussion  nowadays 
of  the  subjects  which  may  be,  or  must 
be,  taught  in  a  college.  A  part,  at  least, 
of  the  controversy  is  futile.  For  the 
main  problem  is  not  one  of  subjects, 
but  of  aim  and  method.  "Liberal stud 
ies,"  says  Professor  S.  H.  Butcher,  one 
of  the  finest  living  teachers  of  Greek, 
"pursued  in  an  illiberal  spirit,  fall  be 
low  the  mechanical  arts  in  dignity  and 
worth.  "There  are  two  ways  of  teaching 

[   12] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

any  subject:  one  opens  the  mind,  the 
other  closes  it. 

The  mastery  of  the  way  to  do  things 
is  the  accomplishment  that  counts  for 
future  work.  I  like  the  teacher  who 
shows  me  not  merely  where  he  stands, 
but  how  he  got  there,  and  who  en 
courages  and  equips  me  to  find  my 
own  path  through  the  maze  of  books 
and  the  tangled  thickets  of  human 
opinion. 

Let  us  keep  our  colleges  and  univer 
sities  true  to  their  function,  which  is 
preparatory  and  not  final.  Let  us  not 
ask  of  them  a  yearly  output  of  "fin 
ished  scholars."  The  very  phrase  has  a 
mortuary  sound,  like  an  epitaph.  He 
who  can  learn  no  more  has  not  really 
learned  anything.  What  we  want  is  not 
finished  scholars,  but  well-equipped 
learners ;  minds  that  can  give  and  take ; 
[  I*] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

intellects  not  cast  in  a  mould,  but  mas 
ters  of  a  method ;  people  who  are  ready 
to  go  forward  wisely  towards  a  larger 
wisdom. 

The  chief  benefit  that  a  good  student 
may  get  in  a  good  college  is  not  a  de 
finite  amount  of  Greek  and  Latin,  Ma 
thematics  and  Chemistry,  Botany  and 
Zoology,  History  and  Logic,  though 
this  in  itself  is  good.  But  far  better 
is  the  power  to  apprehend  and  distin 
guish,  to  weigh  evidence  and  inter 
pret  facts,  to  think  clearly,  to  infer 
carefully,  to  imagine  vividly.  Best  of 
all  is  a  sense  of  the  unity  of  know 
ledge,  a  reverence  for  the  naked  truth, 
a  perception  of  the  variety  of  beauty, 
a  feeling  of  the  significance  of  litera 
ture,  and  a  wider  sympathy  with  the 
upward-striving,  dimly-groping,  per 
plexed  and  dauntless  life  of  man. 

[14] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

I  will  not  ask  whether  such  a  result 
of  college  training  has  any  commer 
cial  value,  whether  it  enables  one  to 
command  a  larger  wage  in  the  mar 
ket-place,  whether  it  opens  the  door 
to  wealth,  or  fame,  or  social  distinc 
tion  ;  nor  even  whether  it  increases  the 
chance  of  winning  a  place  in  the  red 
book  of  Who's  Who.  These  questions 
are  treasonable  to  the  very  idea  of  edu 
cation,  which  aims  not  at  a  marketable 
product,  but  at  a  vital  development. 
The  one  thing  certain  and  important  is 
that  those  who  are  wisely  and  liberally 
disciplined  and  enlightened  in  any  col 
lege  enter  the  school  of  life  with  an  ad 
vantage.  They  are  "well  prepared,"  as 
we  say.  They  are  fitted  to  go  on  with 
their  education  in  reason  and  right 
eousness  and  service,  under  the  Great 
Master. 

[   15] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

I  do  not  hold  with  the  modern  epi 
gram  that  "the  true  university  is  a 
library."  Through  the  vast  wilderness 
of  books  flows  the  slender  stream  of 
literature,  and  often  there  is  need  of 
guidance  to  find  and  follow  it.  Only  a 
genius  or  an  angel  can  safely  be  turned 
loose  in  a  library  to  wander  at  will. 
Nothing  is  more  offensive  than  the 
complacent  illusion  of  omniscience  be 
gotten  in  an  ignorant  person  by  the 
haphazard  reading  of  a  few  volumes  of 
philosophy  or  science. 

There  is  a  certain  kind  of  reading 
that  is  little  better  than  an  idle  habit,  a 
substitute  for  thought.  Of  many  books 
it  may  be  said  that  they  are  nothing  but 
the  echoes  of  echoing  echoes.  If  a  good 
book  be  as  Milton  said,  "the  precious 
life-blood  of  a  master  spirit,  embalmed 
and  treasured,"  still  the  sacred  relic,  as 
[  16] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

in  the  vial  of  St.  Januarius  at  Naples, 
remains  solid  and  immovable.  It  needs 
a  kind  of  miracle  to  make  it  liquefy  and 
flow, — the  miracle  of  interpretation 
and  inspiration, — wrought  most  often 
by  the  living  voice  of  a  wise  master,  and 
communicating  to  the  young  heart  the 
wonderful  secret  that  some  books  are 
alive.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  miracle 
wrought  for  me  by  the  reading  of  Mil 
ton's  Comus  by  my  father  in  his  book- 
lined  study  on  Brooklyn  Heights,  and 
of  Cicero's  Letters  by  Professor  Pack 
ard  in  the  Latin  class  at  old  Princeton. 
The  Greeks  learned  the  alphabet 
from  the  Phoenicians.  But  the  Phoeni 
cians  used  it  for  contracts,  deeds,  bills 
of  lading,  and  accounts ;  the  Greeks  for 
poetry  and  philosophy.  Contracts  and 
accounts,  of  all  kinds,  are  for  filing.  Li 
terature  is  of  one  kind  only,  the  inter- 
[17] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

pretation  of  life  and  nature  through 
the  imagination  in  clear  and  personal 
words  of  power  and  charm.  And  this  is 
for  reading. 

To  get  the  good  of  the  library  in 
the  school  of  life  you  must T  ng  into 
it  something  better  than  a  n  ere  book 
ish  taste.  You  must  bring  the  power 
to  read,  between  the  lines,  behind  the 
words,  beyond  the  horizon  of  the 
printed  page.  Philip's  question  to  the 
chamberlain  of  Ethiopia  was  crucial : 
"  Understandest  thou  what  thou  read- 
est  ? "  I  want  books  not  to  pass  the  time, 
but  to  fill  it  with  beautiful  thoughts 
and  images,  to  enlarge  my  world,  to 
give  me  new  friends  in  the  spirit,  to 
purify  my  ideals  and  make  them  clear, 
to  show  me  the  local  colour  of  un 
known  regions  and  the  bright  stars  of 
universal  truth. 

[18] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

Time  is  wasted  if  we  read  too  much 
looking-glass  fiction,  books  about  our 
own  class  and  place  and  period,  stories 
of  American  college-life,  society  no 
vels,  tales  in  which  our  own  conver 
sation  is;  idpeated  and  our  own  preju 
dices  are  embodied, — Kodak  prints, 
Gramophone  cylinders!  I  prefer  the 
real  voice,  the  visible  face,  things  which 
I  can  see  and  hear  for  myself  without 
waiting  for  Miss  Arabella  Tompkins' 
report  of  them.  When  I  read,  I  wish  to 
go  abroad,  to  hear  new  messages,  to 
meet  new  people,  to  get  a  fresh  point 
of  view,  to  revisit  other  ages,  to  listen 
to  the  oracles  of  Delphi  and  drink  deep 
of  the  springs  of  Pieria.  The  only  writer 
who  can  tell  me  anything  of  real  value 
about  my  familiar  environment  is  the 
genius  who  shows  me  that  after  all  it  is 
not  familiar,  but  strange,  wonderful, 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

crowded  with  secrets  unguessed  and 
possibilities  unrealized. 

The  two  things  best  worth  reading 
about  in  poetry  and  fiction  are  the 
symbols  of  Nature  and  the  passions  of 
the  human  heart.  I  want  also  an  essay 
ist  who  will  clarify  life  by  gentle  illu 
mination  and  lambent  humour ;  a  phi 
losopher  who  will  help  me  to  see  the 
reason  of  things  apparently  unreason 
able;  a  historian  who  will  show  me  how 
peoples  have  risen  and  fallen ;  and  a  bi 
ographer  who  will  let  me  touch  the 
hand  of  the  great  and  the  good.  This  is 
the  magic  of  literature.  This  is  how  real 
books  help  to  educate  us  in  the  school 
of  life. 

There  is  no  less  virtue,  but  rather 
more,  in  events,  tasks,  duties,  obliga 
tions,  than  there  is  in  books.  Work  it 
self  has  a  singular  power  to  unfold  and 

[20] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

develop  our  nature.  The  difference  is 
not  between  working  people  and  think 
ing  people;  but  between  people  who 
work  without  thinking  and  people  who 
think  while  they  work. 

What  is  it  that  you  have  to  do  ?  To 
weave  cloth,  to  grow  fruit,  to  sell 
bread,  to  make  a  fire,  to  prepare  food, 
to  nurse  the  sick,  to  keep  house?  It 
matters  not.  Your  task  brings  you  the 
first  lesson  of  reason, — that  you  must 
deal  with  things  as  they  are,  not  as  you 
imagine  or  desire  them  to  be.  Wet 
wood  will  not  burn.  Fruit  trees  must 
have  sunshine.  Heavy  bread  will  not 
sell.  Sick  people  have  whims.  Empty 
cupboards  yield  no  dinners.  The  house 
will  not  keep  itself.  Platitudes,  no 
doubt;  but  worth  more  for  education 
than  many  a  metaphysical  theory  or 
romantic  dream.  For  when  we  face 

[21   ] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

these  things  and  realize  their  meaning, 
they  lead  us  out  of  the  folly  of  trying 
to  live  in  such  a  world  as  we  would  like 
it  to  be,  and  make  us  live  in  the  world 
which  is. 

The  mystic  visions  of  the  dreamy 
Orient  are  a  splendid  pageant.  But  for 
guidance  I  follow  Socrates,  whose  gods 
were  too  noble  to  deceive  or  masque 
rade,  whose  world  was  a  substantial 
embodiment  of  divine  ideas,  and  whose 
men  and  women  were  not  playthings 
of  Fate  or  Chance,  but  living  souls, 
working,  struggling,  fighting  their  way 
to  victory. 

I  do  not  wish  to  stay  with  the  nurse 
and  hear  fairy-tales.  I  prefer  to  enter 
the  school  of  life.  In  the  presence  of  the 
mysteries  of  pain  and  suffering,  under 
the  pressure  of  disaster  or  disease,  I 
turn  not  for  counsel  to  some  Scythian 

[22] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

soothsayer  with  her  dark  incantations, 
and  her  vague  assurances  that  the  evil 
will  vanish  if  I  only  close  my  eyes,  but 
to  a  calm,  wise  teacher  like  Hippocra 
tes,  who  says,  "  As  for  me  I  think  that 
these  maladies  are  divine,  like  all  oth 
ers,  but  that  none  is  more  divine  or 
more  human  than  another.  Each  has 
its  natural  principle,  and  none  exists 
without  its  natural  cause." 

This  is  intellectual  fortitude.  And 
fortitude  is  the  sentinel  and  guardian 
virtue ;  without  it  all  other  virtues  are 
in  peril.  Daring  is  inborn,  and  often 
born  blind.  But  fortitude  is  implanted, 
nurtured,  unfolded  in  the  school  of  life. 
I  praise  the  marvellous  courage  of  the 
human  heart,  enduring  evils,  facing 
perplexities,  overcoming  obstacles,  ris 
ing  after  a  hundred  falls,  building  up 
what  gravity  pulls  down,  toiling  at 

[23] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

tasks  never  finished,  relighting  extin 
guished  fires,  and  hoping  all  things.  I 
find  fault  with  Byron's  line,  —  "fair 
women  and  brave  men," — for  women 
are  not  less  brave  than  men,  but  often 
more  brave,  though  in  a  different  way. 
Life  itself  takes  them  in  hand,  these 
delicate  and  gracious  creatures ;  and  if 
they  are  worthy  and  willing,  true  scho 
lars  of  experience,  educates  them  in  a 
heroism  of  the  heart  which  suffers  all 
the  more  splendidly  because  it  is  sen 
sitive,  and  conquers  fear  all  the  more 
gloriously  because  it  is  timorous. 

The  obstinacy  of  the  materials  with 
which  we  have  to  deal,  in  all  kinds  of 
human  work,  has  an  educational  value. 
Some  one  has  called  it  "the  total 
depravity  of  inanimate  things."  The 
phrase  would  be  fit  if  depravity  could 
be  conceived  of  as  beneficent.  No  doubt 

[24] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

a  world  in  which  matter  never  got  out 
of  place  and  became  dirt,  in  which  iron 
had  no  flaws  and  wood  no  cracks,  in 
which  gardens  had  no  weeds  and  food 
grew  ready  cooked,  in  which  clothes 
never  wore  out  and  washing  was  as 
easy  as  the  advertisements  describe  it, 
in  which  the  right  word  was  not  hard  to 
find,  and  rules  had  no  exceptions,  and 
things  never  went  wrong,  would  be  a 
much  easier  place  to  live  in.  But  for 
purposes  of  training  and  development 
it  would  be  worth  nothing  at  all.  It  is 
the  resistance  that  puts  us  on  our  met 
tle  :  it  is  the  conquest  of  the  reluctant 
stuff  that  educates  the  worker.  I  wish 
you  enough  difficulties  to  keep  you 
well  and  make  you  strong  and  skilful ! 
No  one  can  get  the  full  benefit  of  the 
school  of  life  who  does  not  welcome  the 
silent  and  deep  instruction  of  Nature. 

[25] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

This  earth  on  which  we  live,  these  hea 
vens  above  us,  these  dumb  companions 
of  our  work  and  play,  this  wondrous  liv 
ing  furniture  and  blossoming  drapery 
of  our  school-room  —  all  have  their 
lessons  to  impart.  But  they  will  not 
teach  swiftly  and  suddenly;  they  will 
not  let  us  master  their  meaning  in  a 
single  course,  or  sum  it  all  up  in  a  single 
treatise.  Slowly,  gradually,  with  infi 
nite  reserves,  with  delicate  confidences, 
as  if  they  would  prolong  their  instruc 
tion  that  we  may  not  forsake  their  com 
panionship,  they  yield  up  their  signifi 
cance  to  the  student  who  loves  them. 
The  scientific  study  of  Nature  is 
often  commended  on  merely  practical 
grounds.  I  would  honour  and  praise  it 
for  higher  reasons, — for  its  power  to 
train  the  senses  in  the  habit  of  vera 
cious  observation ;  for  its  corrective  in- 
[26] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

fluence  upon  the  audacity  of  a  logic 
which  would  attempt  to  evolve  the  ca 
mel  from  the  inner  consciousness  of  a 
philosopher ;  for  its  steadying,  quieting 
effect  upon  the  mind.  Poets  have  in 
dulged  too  often  in  supercilious  sneers 
at  the  man  of  science,  the  natural  phi 
losopher,— 

"afrtgermg  slave, 
One  that  would  peep  and  botanize 
Upon  his  mother's  grave" 

The  contempt  is  ill  founded ;  the  sneer 
is  indiscriminate.  It  is  as  if  one  should 
speak  of  the  poet  as— 

A  man  of  trifling  breath. 

One  that  would  Jlute  and  sonneteer 

About  his  sweethearts  death. 

Is  there  any  more  danger  of  narrowing 
the  mind  by  the  patient  scrutiny  of 
plants  and  birds,  than  by  the  investi 
gation  of  ancient  documents  and  an- 

[27] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

nals,  or  the  study  of  tropes,  metaphors 
and  metres  ?  Is  it  only  among  men  of 
science  that  we  find  pettiness,  and  iras 
cibility,  and  domineering  omniscience, 
or  do  they  sometimes  occur  among  his 
torians  and  poets?  It  seems  to  me  that 
there  are  no  more  serene  and  admirable 
intelligences  than  those  which  are  often 
found  among  the  true  naturalists.  How 
fine  and  enviable  is  their  lifelong  pur 
suit  of  their  chosen  subject.  What  mind 
could  be  happier  in  its  kingdom  than 
that  of  an  Agassiz  or  a  Guyot?  What 
life  more  beautiful  and  satisfying  than 
that  of  a  Linnaeus  or  an  Audubon? 

But  for  most  of  us  these  advanced 
courses  in  natural  science  are  impossi 
ble.  What  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  is  not  really  worthy  to  be  called 
nature- st udy ;  it  is  simply  nature-kin 
dergarten.  We  learn  a  little  about  the 

[28] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

movements  of  the  stars  and  clouds ;  a 
few  names  of  trees  and  flowers  and 
birds;  some  of  the  many  secrets  of  their 
life  and  growth ;  just  the  words  of  one 
syllable,  that  is  all.  And  then  if  we  are 
wise  and  teachable,  we  walk  with  Na 
ture,  and  let  her  breathe  into  our  hearts 
those  lessons  of  humility,  and  patience, 
and  confidence,  and  good  cheer,  and 
tranquil  resignation,  and  temperate  joy, 
which  are  her  "moral  lore,"-— lessons 
which  lead  her  scholars  onward  through 
a  merry  youth,  and  a  strong  maturity, 
and  a  serene  old  age,  and  prepare  them 
by  the  pure  companionship  of  this 
world  for  the  enjoyment  of  a  better. 

The  social  environment,  the  human 
contact  in  all  its  forms,  plays  a  large 
part  in  the  school  of  life.  "The  city  in 
structs  men,"  said  Simonides. 

Conversation  is  an  exchange  of  ideas : 
[  29] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

this  is  what  distinguishes  it  from  gos 
sip,  and  chatter.  The  organization  of 
work,  the  division  of  labour,  implies 
and  should  secure  a  mutual  education 
of  the  workers.  Some  day,  when  this 
is  better  understood,  the  capitalist  will 
be  enlightened  and  the  labour-union 
civilized. 

Even  the  vexed  problem  of  domestic 
service  is  capable  of  yielding  educa 
tional  results  to  those  who  are  busy 
with  it.  The  mistress  may  learn  some 
thing  of  the  nature  of  fair  dealing,  the 
responsibilities  of  command,  the  essen 
tial  difference  between  a  carpet-sweep 
ing  machine  and  the  girl  who  pushes  it. 
The  servant  may  learn  something  of 
the  dignity  of  doing  any  kind  of  work 
well,  the  virtue  of  self-respecting  obe 
dience,  and  the  sweet  reasonableness 
of  performing  the  task  that  is  paid  for. 

[30] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

I  do  not  think  much  of  the  analogy 
between  human  society  and  the  bee 
hive  or  the  ant-hill,  which  certain  wri 
ters  are  now  elaborating  in  subtle  sym 
bolist  fashion.  It  passes  over  and  ig 
nores  the  vital  problem  which  is  ever 
pressing  upon  us  humans, — the  pro 
blem  of  reconciling  personal  claims 
with  the  claims  of  the  race.  Among  the 
bees  and  the  ants,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
the  community  is  all,  the  individual  is 
nothing.  There  are  no  personal  aspi 
rations  to  suppress;  no  conscious  con 
flicts  of  duty  and  desire ;  no  dreams  of 
a  better  kind  of  hive,  a  new  and  per 
fected  formicary.  It  is  only  to  repeat 
themselves,  to  keep  the  machine  going, 
to  reproduce  the  same  hive,  the  same 
ant-hill,  that  these  perfect  commu 
nisms  blindly  strive.  But  human  soci 
ety  is  less  perfect  and  therefore  more 

[31   ] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF    LIFE 

promising.  The  highest  achievements 
of  humanity  come  from  something 
which,  so  far  as  we  know,  bees  and  ants 
do  not  possess :  the  sense  of  imperfec 
tion,  the  desire  of  advance. 

Ideals  must  be  personal  before  they 
can  become  communal.  It  was  not  un 
til  the  rights  of  the  individual  were 
perceived  and  recognized,  including 
the  right  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness, 
that  the  vision  of  a  free  and  noble  state, 
capable  of  progress,  dawned  upon  man 
kind. 

Life  teaches  all  but  the  obstinate  and 
mean  how  to  find  a  place  in  such  a 
state,  and  grow  therein.  A  true  love  of 
others  is  twinned  with  a  right  love  of 
self;  that  is,  a  love  for  the  better  part, 
the  finer,  nobler  self,  the  man  that  is 

"  to  arise  in  me^ 

That  the  man  that  I  am  may  cease  to  be." 
[32] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF    LIFE 

Individualism  is  a  fatal  poison.  But 
individuality  is  the  salt  of  common  life. 
You  may  have  to  li ve  in  a  crowd,  but 
you  do  not  have  to  live  like  it,  nor  sub 
sist  on  its  food.  You  may  have  your 
own  orchard.  You  may  drink  at  a  hid 
den  spring.  Be  yourself  if  you  would 
serve  others. 

Learn  also  how  to  appraise  criticism, 
to  value  enmity,  to  get  the  good  of  be 
ing  blamed  and  evil  spoken  of.  A  soft 
social  life  is  not  likely  to  be  very  noble. 
You  can  hardly  tell  whether  your  faiths 
and  feelings  are  real  until  they  are  at 
tacked. 

But  take  care  that  you  defend  them 
with  an  open  mind  and  by  right  reason. 
You  are  entitled  to  a  point  of  view,  but 
not  to  announce  it  as  the  centre  of  the 
universe.  Prejudice,  more  than  any 
thing  else,  robs  life  of  its  educational 

[33] 


THE    SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

value.  I  knew  a  man  who  maintained 
that  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  triumph 
of  Christianity  was  the  practice  of  in 
fant  baptism.  I  heard  a  woman  say  that 
no  one  who  ate  with  his  knife  could  be 
a  gentleman.  Hopeless  scholars  these ! 
What  we  call  society  is  very  narrow. 
But  life  is  very  broad.  It  includes  "the 
whole  world  of  God's  cheerful,  fallible 
men  and  women."  It  is  not  only  the  fa 
mous  people  and  the  well-dressed  peo 
ple  who  are  worth  meeting.  It  is  every 
one  who  has  something  to  communi 
cate.  The  scholar  has  something  to  say 
to  me,  if  he  be  still  alive.  But  I  would 
hear  also  the  traveller,  the  manufac 
turer,  the  soldier,  the  good  workman, 
the  forester,  the  village  school-teacher, 
the  nurse,  the  quiet  observer,  the  un 
spoiled  child,  the  skilful  housewife.  I 
knew  an  old  German  woman,  living  in 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

a  city  tenement,  who  said,  "My  heart 
is  a  little  garden,  and  God  is  planting 
flowers  there." 

"Ilfaut  cultiver  sonjardin" — yes, 
but  not  only  that.  One  should  learn  also 
to  enjoy  the  neighbour's  garden,  how 
ever  small;  the  roses  straggling  over 
the  fence,  the  scent  of  lilacs  drifting 
across  the  road. 

There  is  a  great  complaint  nowa 
days  about  the  complication  of  life,  es 
pecially  in  its  social  and  material  as 
pects.  It  is  bewildering,  confusing, 
over-straining.  It  destroys  the  temper 
of  tranquillity  necessary  to  education. 
The  simple  life  is  recommended,  and 
rightly,  as  a  refuge  from  this  trouble. 

But  perhaps  we  need  to  understand 
a  little  more  clearly  what  simplicity  is. 
It  does  not  consist  merely  in  low  ceil 
ings,  loose  garments,  and  the  absence 

[35] 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

of  bric-a-brac.  Life  may  be  conven 
tional  and  artificial  in  a  log  cabin.  Phi 
listines  have  their  prejudices,  and  the 
etiquette  of  the  cotton-mill  may  be  as 
absurd  and  burdensome  as  that  of  the 
manor-house.  A  little  country  town, 
with  its  inflexible  social  traditions,  its 
petty  sayings  and  jealousies,  its  obsti 
nate  mistrust  of  all  that  is  strange  and 
its  crude  gossip  about  all  that  it  cannot 
comprehend,  with  its  sensitive  self- 
complacency,  and  its  subtle  convolu 
tions  of  parish  politics,  and  its  rivalries 
on  a  half  inch  scale,  may  be  as  compli 
cated  and  as  hard  to  live  in  as  great 
Babylon  itself. 

Simplicity,  in  truth,  is  less  dependent 
upon  external  things  than  we  imagine. 
It  can  live  in  broadcloth  or  homespun ; 
it  can  eat  white  bread  or  black.  It  is  not 
outward,  but  inward.  A  certain  open- 
[36] 


THE    SCHOOL   OF   LIFE 

ness  of  mind  to  learn  the  daily  lessons 
of  the  school  of  life ;  a  certain  willing 
ness  of  heart  to  give  and  to  receive  that 
extra  service,  that  gift  beyond  the  strict 
measure  of  debt  which  makes  friend 
ship  possible;  a  certain  clearness  of 
spirit  to  perceive  the  best  in  things  and 
people,  to  love  it  without  fear  and  to 
cleave  to  it  without  mistrust ;  a  peace 
able  sureness  of  affection  and  taste ;  a 
gentle  straightforwardness  of  action; 
a  kind  sincerity  of  speech, — these  are 
the  marks  of  the  simple  life,  which 
cometh  not  with  observation,  for  it  is 
within  you.  I  have  seen  it  in  a  hut.  I 
have  seen  it  in  a  palace.  And  wherever 
it  is  found  it  is  the  best  prize  of  the 
school  of  life,  the  badge  of  a  scholar 
well-beloved  of  the  Master. 

THE  END 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


26Jan'60FK 


SEC'D  LD 


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